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DMK, AIADMK regimes delayed Hogenakkal project: Ramadoss

VOCIFEROUS protest: PMK founder S. Ramadoss raising slogans demanding immediate implementation of the Hogenakkal water supply project at a demonstration in front of the Collectorate in Vellore on Friday.

Special Correspondent

Pattali Makkal Katchi holds demonstration in Vellore

VELLORE: Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss has blamed the ruling DMK government and the previous AIADMK regime for the delay in implementation of the Hogenakkal drinking water supply project, cleared by the Centre 10 years ago, following an agreement reached between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Addressing a PMK demonstration here on Friday, Dr. Ramadoss said Union Minister T.R. Baalu had gone on record saying that the Ministry of Environment and Forests had cleared the project in September 1998.

Scheme

When Karnataka formulated a scheme in 1998 for taking water from the Cauvery to augment the drinking water supply to Bangalore, Tamil Nadu opposed it.

The then Union Minister for Water Resources convened a meeting of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments.

As per the agreement reached, Karnataka would implement the Bangalore drinking water supply project and Tamil Nadu, the Hogenakkal project for supplying drinking water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts.

While the ruling parties in Tamil Nadu implemented schemes for supply of Cauvery water to 15 districts, they failed to implement a drinking water scheme for Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, thus “betraying the people of these districts.”

Dr. Ramadoss said when PMK president G.K. Mani filed a petition in the Madras High Court in 2003, seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government for implementing the Hogenakkal water project, the then AIADMK government stated in its counter that it would take eight years to implement the project.

The same government expeditiously implemented a project to bring water from a parched Veeranam lake to Chennai, covering a distance of about 250 km. The PMK leader said the two Dravidian parties should take the responsibility for the present state of affairs as they had failed to prevent the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments from constructing dams and reservoirs across the Cauvery and the Palar.